The goal of most customer satisfaction systems is to eliminate problems and thus ensure repeat business. A customer satisfaction system typically includes customer support and some sort of feedback technique to determine if the customer support is adequate. In the typical customer support model, a customer purchases goods or services from a provider. If there is a problem with the goods or services, the customer contacts a customer service representative who works to fix the problem. Customer service may be provided via telephone support (in which a representative helps the customer solve his problem directly), or via a network connection (such as the Internet or an intranet).
Network-based support typically involves posting a list of frequently asked questions (“faqs”) and providing a form for the customer to use to request support if the list of faqs does not solve his problem. The request is then transmitted to a customer support representative. The request form usually includes fields where the customer can input data describing the problem. Some network-based support includes software which can collect data from the customer's system and transmits it to customer support. Providing customer support via a network connection is desirable because it reduces costs by reducing help desk traffic, it is global in reach and is relatively easy to access. However, network-based support is frequently not as satisfactory as a telephone-based help desk.
To measure how well customer support is solving customer problems, many customer satisfaction systems rely on surveys. In some cases, a follow-up survey will be sent to the customer after the completion of a service call. Frequently, only a small percentage of customers respond, so customer service does not know if, and how well, all of the customer problems were resolved. In other cases, a generalized marketing survey may be sent to all customers in a certain demographic.
Generalized customer satisfaction marketing surveys, like most surveys, also suffer from limited customer response. Marketing surveys also generally report evaluations without specific indications for improvement, and follow a “measure and report” sequence that frequently results in delayed improvements to solve general problems identified, if any. Consequently, customers with unique or urgent problems become dissatisfied and disloyal, resulting in profit declines. Other problems with current customer satisfaction systems include: biased samples, delayed remedies, nominal guidance, constrained learning, limited usage, high costs, questionable value.